Tale of Two Factions, A

This revisionist study reevaluates the origins and foundation myths of the Faqaris and Qasimis, two rival factions that divided Egyptian society during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Egypt was the largest province in the Ottoman Empire. In answer to the enduring mystery surrounding the factions’ origins, Jane Hathaway places their emergence within the generalized crisis that the Ottoman Empire—like much of the rest of the world—suffered during the early modern period, while uncovering a symbiosis between Ottoman Egypt and Yemen that was critical to their formation. In addition, she scrutinizes the factions’ foundation myths, deconstructing their tropes and symbols to reveal their connections to much older popular narratives. Drawing on parallels from a wide array of cultures, she demonstrates with striking originality how rituals such as storytelling and public processions, as well as identifying colors and emblems, could serve to reinforce factional identity.

Title Page, Copyright Page

Contents

Abbreviations

Note on Transliteration

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

I love historical mysteries, and this book is the product of my obstinate
desire to solve one of the more perplexing ones within my own
specialty, the study of Ottoman Egypt. Egyptian society in the seventeenth
century was riven by the rivalry between two factions, the
Faqaris and Qasimis...

Introduction

Centuries ago, in the land of Egypt, there were two factions: the Faqaris
and the Qasimis. They had always been enemies; anything one faction
got, the other had to acquire. Hence, they divided all the subprovinces
of Egypt, along with all the wealth that the subprovinces produced,
between them. In those days, Egypt was the largest province of the
Ottoman Empire...

Appendix: Origin Myths of the Factions

Below are translations of two of the three origin myths of the Faqari
and Qasimi/Sa˜d and Haram factions. The first myth appears in the
chronicle of Ahmed Çelebi while the second occurs in different versions
in three of the chronicles of the Damurdashi group. A third
myth, in which Dhu’l-Faqar...

1. Bilateral Factionalism in Ottoman Egypt

What makes a faction more than a group, a sect, or a household? In
the case of the Faqaris and Qasimis, to say nothing of competing pairs
of factions in numerous earlier, later, and contemporaneous societies,
the defining characteristics...

A key indicator of the bilateral character of the Faqari and Qasimi
factions is the origin myths associated with them, all of which stress
the mutual enmity of two individuals or parties. The most insistent on
this point is the origin myth presented, with numerous variations, in
the Damurdashi group of chronicles...

3. Sa'd and Haram: The Factions’ Bedouin Equivalents

In the origin myths transmitted in the Damurdashi group of chronicles
and in al-Jabarti’s Ajåib al-åthår, the division between Sa˜d and Haram
predates and even seems to take precedence over the division between
Faqari and Qasimi. Although none of the chroniclers in question
explicitly states that the Sa˜d and Haram are bedouin tribal
groupings, this becomes...

4. The Yemeni Connection to Egypt’s Factions

The last chapter demonstrated that Sa˜d and Haram supply an unmistakable
Yemeni connection to Egypt’s factionalism, not least because
the two tribal blocs may have originated in Yemen. The unquestioned
hegemony of the boundaries of the modern Egyptian nation-state in
the historiography of Ottoman Egypt...

5. Red and White: The Colors of the Factions’ Banners

Absolutely critical to the contrasting identities of the Faqaris and
Qasimis are the different-colored banners that the two factions carried.
The various origin myths, in fact, give the impression that the
factions were initially differentiated...

6. The Knob and the Disk—The Factions’ Standards

In addition to different-colored flags, the Faqari and Qasimi factions
carried different sorts of javelins (Arabic s. mizråq). The origin myths
transmitted by the Damurdashi group of chronicles, in fact, assert that
these javelins, as opposed to the red and white flags, were the chief
identifying characteristic of the two factions; it was from their javelins,
the chroniclers tell us, that they recognized...

7. Selim and Sudun in the Origin Myths

Almost without exception, the various origin myths of the Faqari and
Qasimi factions assign a pivotal role to the Ottoman conquest of Egypt
in 1517. “Faqari and Qasimi appeared among the soldiers and bedouin
and villages of Egypt only under...

8. The Mulberry Tree in the Origin Myths

Ahmed Çelebi’s account of the origin of the Faqari and Qasimi factions,
wherein Sultan Selim plays such a pivotal role, is both the fullest
version of the origin myth and the most perplexing. As I have
noted elsewhere,1 this origin myth abruptly interpolates itself into the
chronicler’s account...

9. The Competitive Feasts of Qasim and Dhu’l-Faqar Beys

In the Damurdashi group of chronicles and in al-Jabarti’s narrative, an
alternative origin myth appears that does not draw on the tradition of
Sudun and his sons. According to this myth, the Faqari and Qasimi
factions originate in two...

Thus far, we have been treating the Faqari and Qasimi factions in tandem,
as part of a single two-faction phenomenon whose roots we are
seeking. Yet in the introduction, I hinted that in “reality,” the two factions
may have come into being through two very different, nonparallel processes,
which could explain why the factional labels “Faqari” and “Qasimi”
do not appear to come into...

In the mid-seventeenth century, at roughly the same time that the
Qasimi faction was apparently beginning to coalesce around Qasim
Bey and his followers, the germ of what would later be known as the
Faqari faction becomes vaguely discernible...

Conclusion

I started this project with the aim of solving the mystery of the origins of the Faqari and Qasimi factions. I think I have done this; at least I
have proposed a solution that I think is more plausible than any previously
put forward. The Qasimi faction, indeed, originated with the
influential early seventeenth...

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